The settlement stemmed from a case had been tied up in lawsuits for a decade. A ruling by the state Supreme Court and a settlement involving CenterPoint Energy ultimately resulted in the $1.7 billion deal. That comes in addition to the $2.3 billion CenterPoint was already allowed to collect for stranded costs. The result for most consumers works out to about $7.30 a month, or about $4 billion total.

But that’s just Houston. Similar cases involving other transmission companies, such as American Electric Power and Texas New Mexico Power, also resulted in court decisions and it’s now possible to assess the total statewide impact from stranded costs, which the folks at Recharge Texas have done. The result? $6.5 billion.

Think that’s too much? Well, it would have been even higher, but the folks in Dallas caught a break. The company that used to be TXU dropped efforts to recover stranded costs for its nuclear power plant and other facilities as part of its own settlements with cities. What dereg has wrought, as I’ve said many times, isn’t a free market, but in Dallas, it’s a lot less costly than it is in Houston.